Max and I headed to Paris for a long weekend and what a weekend it was! We planned to take the TGV there and back on a direct line, however the train strike made that a little difficult. It was a very minor snag in our trip, which is more than a lot of other travelers could say. The ash from the Icelandic volcano had closed the airports in Paris and Northern Europe. The train stations were packed with people trying to find other means of getting where they needed to be. People we left stranded in what is being called the worst air travel disruption since 9/11.
We left Chambery at 5:40 a.m. and were in the Louvre around 10:00 the same morning. We checked our backpacks and started in the Denon Wing, along with every other tourist. This seems to be the most popular and crowded wing. The other wings of the museum were pretty calm and peaceful.
The Denon Wing houses such work as the Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo, and Winged Victory (above). These seem to be the works that most people come to see when they visit the Louvre, as evident by the tour groups and all the people crowded around them. Crazy. We went to the Musee d'Orsay the next day, to pick up where the Louvre left off with paintings from immpressionist artists. It was just as awesome, if not more interesting to us. 
The first time we visited Paris, we saw Notre Dame Cathedral but our pictures didn't come out well because of the sun's position. So this time, we went back to the cathedral in the evening when the sun what shining on it and voila, much better, and still amazing. 
We wanted to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night too. So after some crepes and gelato, we headed towards the tower, watching the sun go down by the Seine along the way.
It is so worth staying even just a night in Paris to see the Eiffel Tower when the sun goes down.
The next morning, we took a train to Versailles! We had not planned on going there but after visiting the Musee d'Orsay the previous day, and still having almost a whole day left in Paris, we decided to make the most of our time and see the Palace of Versailles. It was a spontaneous decision made over lunch at McDonald's and a decision I'll always be glad we made. 
The shear size of Versailles is daunting. The walk from the palace through the gardens to the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette takes 30 minutes, without stopping, and we stopped...a lot. To fill you in, the Palace of Versailles was the residence of the king (most famously Louis XIV) and the French goverment for 100 years, until the French Revolution. Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, turned the Palace of Versailles into a cultural epicenter and the envy of Europe.
I really admire this fountain in the Palace Gardens. I saw it first on a postcard in the palace museum gift shop. We bought the postcard, then proceeded with the excitment of a kid on Christmas (ok, that was more me than Max) down the long path through the gardens to see the fountain in person. We were able to see it during the fountain show and we were not disappointed.
The fountain I was so obsessed with is called the Bassin d'Apollon or Apollo Fountain. I think I took at least 20 pictures of it; we took about 100 pictures at Versailles, almost all of them in the gardens. I ended up buying a book of photos by photograper Jean-Baptiste Leroux on just the Palace Gardens. Now that's my kind of book. Versailles was the best way for us to end our trip to Paris. It was great to be able to spend more time in city, and see the sights more in depth. Paris...check!
